Michigan voters showing up in droves to election polls

MICHIGAN. -- 2024 marks the first year Michigan has ever participated in early in-person voting, and when those polls opened for the first day on Saturday, mitten state voters hit record high early voting numbers.

In a Monday morning press release, Michigan Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, shared that in the first two days, more than 250,000 Michigan voters cast their ballot early.

“The fact that in this November election, a quarter of a million Michigan citizens voted on the first two days alone, showed that it’s starting to be embraced by citizens all across our state,” said Benson.

She went on to explain that nearly 24 percent of the state’s active registered voters have already cast their ballots for the November general election, and those rising numbers do not show any signs of slowing down in the next eight days with the addition of in-person early voting.

“For the August primary, we had about 73,000 folks participate in early in-person voting. Before this weekend, the record for highest early voting turnout in a single day was just over 11,000 voters. And on Saturday, we had more than 145,000 turnouts statewide. Just an incredible increase, over 10 percent, tenfold,”

For many, avoiding Election Day lines and getting in and out of the polls as fast as possible goes into their decision to early vote, like first time early voter, Art, who says he went through the entire voting process in less than 20 minutes when he went on Monday.

“They got a lot of people in there helping you and pointing you in the right direction and, works pretty well,” said Art.

With the high turnout numbers, the Cass County Clerk's office, who saw more than 1700 early in-person voters over the weekend, says voters should expect a bit of a wait. However, that will also help lower the wait times on Election Day, which is just around the corner on November 5th.